Team / Jon Caften
Basically nobody knows why we still sponsor this guy. He hits on everyone’s girlfriend, drinks everyone’s single malt, breaks skateboards cause he uses them to move firewood, he disappears for months on end… with your iPod, he kicks cats when nobody else is in the room, takes your girlfriend home if the ‘hitting-on’ works, borrows money with no intention of giving it back, and never, ever lifts the toilet seat and that pencil has no aim. He does however get paid to fly around writing for Concrete Wave so we all kiss his ass.
20 questions to Jon Caften
1- What’s your full name?
Jonathan Joshua Caften
2- What are your buddies calling you?
Jon. 3- Where and when were you born? Rossland, British Columbia – August 23, 1984 4- When did you start riding skateboards? My mom skated while she was pregnant. 5- When was your first time on a longboard and what setup were you riding? I think the first time was when I was at this party in Castlegar and a few of us decided to go to the Marlane and watch the strippers. It was about two km walk and everyone had street skates but I had just snapped my deck in half. I guess the guy who’s house we were partying at was some sort of death freak because he had these coffin parts in his living room. Some kids were airboarding on the couch one of them bailed on a 360 flip and landed on the coffin coffee table breaking the hinged cover off. I took a roll of duct-tape and mounted my each snapped off section of my deck to the coffin cover and we headed off to the peelers. It was a horrible ride, one of the strippers did a dance with the contraption on stage but it was vulgar and too slimy to ride back. I left it at the bar and heard that the guy who threw the party was pissed at me for ages after that. 6- Who were your early downhill influences if any? Gary Hardwick I suppose. Thrasher did that comic book style cover with him. Mostly it was just my Rossland bros, our town has some of the sickest lines everywhere and we all bombed them on street skates cause that’s all we knew. Kris Kent, Dave Koiter, Mike Towsend, Kerry McCall. 7- Best spot you skated? Barcelona, no ifs and buts about it. And the women there…. Holey mierda! 8- What is your ideal session like? About 5 foot 9, 120 lbs, c-cups and tight everywhere. 9- Who’s your favorite rider to watch on video?
I go to skatehouse media a lot, but I go to pornhub a lot more often.
10- Do you have a blog or website?, shoot the url:
I think I am going to get one on the Kebbek site aren’t I?
11- What percentage your Facebook friends you have never met?
Facebook is not my gig. I think that if anyone wants to go about messing with you they have way too much access to people and places that may mean something to you and they could screw them up for you. I’ve made a few unfriends over the years, mostly because people think that they have ownership over their girlfriends. I don’t need the tracking me down just to be dicks.
12- Favorite meal?
Monique.
13- Favorite beer?
Ian’s homebrew.
14- What music makes you want to go skate?
Bloc Party has the greatest drummer in the world, that guy gets me amped. DJ Krush or DJ Shadow is probably the best coming through my earphones when I’m riding though.
15- Any musical guilty pleasure you are ashamed of?
Stereo Total, that woman’s voice gets me so randy.
16- Can you drop in a vert ramp?
Yes. Cement vert bowl in Vancouver at Josh Evin’s memorial session !
17- What is your favorite setup right now and why?
I ride my own model from three years ago. I don’t get why kids change their boards so much, that thing is still fine. I run JimZ trucks, Amber urethane Abec 11 wheels that I have had for 8 years now.
18- What’s that little thing you do to your setups that makes them feel way better?
Skate it, leaving it in the corner while you surf the internet makes it stop feeling better when you go back out.
19- What's the best race you've attended and why?
I know a lot of skaters are into the races and I know I have to write about them sometimes because it’s my job at Concrete Wave to cover all kinds of downhill. But maybe I can get one thing off my chest here…, why? Why does skateboarding have this disgusting disease inside of it that makes us drive to be ‘better’ than any other skaters. The whole pretence of skating to get something or to be sponsored or recognized or be something important is just weird to me. Makes me nauseous actually. I don’t want anyone to ever say that Jon Caften is better than so and so, it’s just so lame to me. I had a really great run at snowboarding when in Rossland it was just a bunch of bros, the Lit Mob. We were really good and we had a great crew, bombing huge cliff lines, powder drops, couloirs and just charging as well as anyone we saw in the mags or videos. Then, sponsorship started happening and everything about the brotherhood seemed to fall off track, guys were going filming and not taking their best mates in case they got the shot that the out of towner filmer was looking for. I was bummed to see competition amongst us, it ruined what we had.
Now that I am writing for Concrete Wave I am in a very unique position where I can choose who my articles are focussing on and who gets recognition, and guess what. I have a very big filter for the assholes. I’ll give you an example, Rockin Rookie is a great friend of mine but he doesn’t get to travel too much, last year he went out to Maryhill for the first time and while he was there he met a bunch of the people he’s been reading about in mags and online. There was one skater who I won’t name who has been winning some events lately, Rookie went up to him to introduce himself since he figured they had a lot in common and this kid just gave him the ‘whatever’ nod an looked off into nowhere basically just ignoring Rookie, too cool, way too cool. Well, now that guy will never get any Concrete Wave coverage if I can prevent it. Being better doesn’t mean shit, being kind to other skaters and being dedicating to your own skateboarding is what impresses me.
20- Anyone you want to thank? Mike Brooke at Concrete Wave has allowed me to expose downhill skateboarding in a very unique way and I think all of us owe him a huge thanks for taking that risk in giving me a job. Thanks to all the women of the world too, you beautiful beings deserve better than just one man. Nobody owns you, do what you want to do. Thanks Jon
Jon Caften
Jon's favorite board: The Rêve
